Index, bibliography, notes, ill (maps), p.816.In the Trenches of Hell On 19 July 1916, 7000 Australian soldiers - in the first major action of the AIF on the Western Front - attacked entrenched German positions at Fromelles in northern France. By the next day, there were over 5500 casualties, including nearly 2000 dead - a bloodbath that the Australian War Memorial describes as 'the worst 24 hours in Australia's entire history. Just days later, three Australian Divisions attacked German positions at nearby Pozi�res, and over the next six weeks they suffered another 23,000 casualties. Of that bitter battle, the great Australian war correspondent Charles Bean would write, 'The field of Pozi�res is more consecrated by Australian fighting and more hallowed by Australian blood than any field which has ever existed . . .' Yet the sad truth is that, nearly a century on from those battles, Australians know only a fraction of what occurred. This book brings the battles back to life and puts the reader in the moment, illustrating both the heroism displayed and the insanity of the British plan. With his extraordinary vigour and commitment to research, Peter FitzSimons shows why this is a story about which all Australians can be proud. And angry.world war 1914-1918 - campaigns - western front, world war 1914-1918 - australian participation - fromelles and pozieres

Index, bibliography, notes, ill (maps), p.565.non-fictionPasschendaele epitomises everything that was most terrible about the Western Front. The photographs never sleep of this four-month battle, fought from July to November 1917, the worst year of the war- blackened tree stumps rising out of a field of mud, corpses of men and horses drowned in shell holes, terrified soldiers huddled in trenches awaiting the whistle. The intervening century, the most violent in human history, has not disarmed these pictures of their power to shock. At the very least they ask us, on the 100th anniversary of the battle, to see and to try to understand what happened here. Yes, we commemorate the event. Yes, we adorn our breasts with poppies. But have we seen? Have we understood? Have we dared to reason why? What happened at Passchendaele was the expression of the 'wearing-down war', the war of pure attrition at its most spectacular and ferocious. Paul Ham's Passchendaele- Requiem for Doomed Youth shows how ordinary men on both sides endured this constant state of siege, with a very real awareness that they were being gradually, deliberately, wiped out. Yet the men never broke- they went over the top, when ordered, again and again and again. And if they fell dead or wounded, they were casualties in the 'normal wastage', as the commanders described them, of attritional war. Only the soldier's friends at the front knew him as a man, with thoughts and feelings. His family back home knew him as a son, husband or brother, before he had enlisted. By the end of 1917 he was a different creature- his experiences on the Western Front were simply beyond their powers of comprehension. The book tells the story of ordinary men in the grip of a political and military power struggle that determined their fate and has foreshadowed the destiny of the world for a century. Passchendaele lays down a powerful challenge to the idea of war as an inevitable expression of the human will, and examines the culpability of governments and military commanders in a catastrophe that destroyed the best part of a generation. Collapse summary world war 1914-1918 - campaigns - western front, france - campaigns - passchaendaele

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.712.non-fictionAbout 1300 Australians died in the desert campaigns of World War I, while another 3500 died in North Africa and the Middle East during World War II. Thousands more carried the wounds of war for the rest of their lives. Countless families were left behind to mourn the dead and comfort the injured. A ripple effect of grief passed down the generations. This is the story of Australia's desert wars as never before told. Using letters, diaries, interviews and unpublished memoirs, Desert Boys provides an intensely personal and gripping insight into the thoughts, feelings and experiences of two generations of Australian soldiers. In many cases these were fathers and sons going to successive wars with all the tragedy, adventure and hardship that brought.australian army - desert campaigns, desert warfare - 20th century

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.440.I history of the siege of Malta, the longest lasting siege in British history.world war 1939-1945 - malta, malta - siege 1940-1943

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.218.non-fictionA traveller's guide to the Australian battlefields and cemeteries in Viet Nam written for people actually holidaying in Viet Nam as well as people who think they might travel to Viet Nam.vietnam conflict 1961-1975 - travel guides, vietnam war 1961-1975 - participation - australia

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.725.non-fictionDrawing on an unprecedented variety of sources, Mark Mazower reveals how the Nazis designed, maintained, and ultimately lost their European empire and offers a chilling vision of the world Hitler would have made had he won the war.germany - history - 1933-1945, national socialism - germany

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.346.non-fictionAccount of the Second World War as viewed and experienced in northern Australia ; includes references to Aboriginal people as coast watchers and rescuers, in army service, as trackers, in the Special Reconaissance Unit ; W.E.H. Stanner and the North Australia Observer Unit ; Protectors of women ; results of war experiences ; white attitudes towards Aboriginal people. world war 1939-1945 - campaigns - australia, darwin - bombing

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.592.non-fictionEven Stalin was awed by D-Day. 'In the whole history of war, ' he wrote to Churchill, 'there has never been such an undertaking.' Those who took part in the great cross-Channel invasion, whether soldier, sailor or airman, would never forget the sight. It was by far the largest invasion fleet ever known.world war 1939-1945 - campaigns - france, operation overlord

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.528.non-fictionhis sequel to D-DAY opens at 00:01 hours, June 7, 1944 on the Normandy Beaches and ends at 02:45 hours, May 7, 1945. In between comes the battles in the hedgerows of Normandy, the breakout of Saint-Lo, the Falaise gap, Patton tearing through France, the liberation of Paris, the attempt to leap the Rhine in operation Market-Garden, the near-miraculous German recovery, the battles around Metz and in the Huertgen Forest, the Battle of the Bulge, the capture of the bridge at Remagen and, finally, the overunning of Germany. From the enlisted men and junior officers, Ambrose draws on hundreds of interviews and oral histories from those on both sides of the war. The experience of these citizen soldiers reveals the ordinary sufferings and hardships of war. They overcame their fear and inexperience, the mistakes of their high command and their enemy to win the war. operation overlord, world war 1939-1945 - campaigns - europe

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.374.non-fictionhis is the largely unknown story of another Anzac force, which fought not at Gallipoli, but in Greece, during World War II. Desperately outnumbered and fighting in deeply inhospitable conditions, these Anzacs found themselves engaging in a long retreat through Greece, under constant air attack. Most of the Anzac Corps was evacuated by the end of April 1941, but many men got only as far as Crete. Fighting a German paratroop invasion there in May, large numbers were taken captive and spent four long years as prisoners of the Nazis. The campaign in Greece turned out to have uncanny parallels to the original Gallipoli operation: both were inspired by Winston Churchill, both were badly planned by British military leaders, and both ended in defeat and evacuation. Just as Gallipoli provided military academies the world over with lessons in how not to conduct a complex feat of arms, Churchill's Greek adventure reinforced fundamental lessons in modern warfare - heavy tanks could not be stopped by men armed with rifles, and Stuka dive-bombers would not be deflected by promises of air support from London that were never honoured. In this revised edition, based on fresh archival research, and containing a collection of previously unpublished photos, the truth finally emerges as to how the Australian, Greek, and New Zealand Governments were misled over key decisions that would define the campaign. world war 1939-1945 - campaigns - greece, greek campaign - australian involvement

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.235.This book traces the history of the SAS from its birth. It shows how this unique fighting force overcame the disapproval of military authorities to win glory and fame.world war 1939-1945 - military operations - great britain., special air service regiment

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.356.non-fictionxamines the German Luftwaffe's air raid on Coventry, England, on November 14, 1940, and its impact and precedent as a new kind of air warfare.world war 1939-1945 - aerial operations - germany, world war 1939-1945 - coventry

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.266.non-fictionStephen Bungay's Alamein is a trenchant re-examination of an event now cloaked in myth. Though the propaganda of the time focused on personalities, this was a desert war, he reveals, determined largely by logistics. In a conflict that for two years had ebbed and flowed along the North African littoral, victory was always going to go to the side that mastered its supply lines - in Britain's case not least by withstanding the epic siege of Malta. He also gets beyond the polemics and eulogies of many past writers in re-assessing Alamein's chief protaganists, Montgomery and Rommel, to show how it was precisely the most unattractive side of Montgomery's character that was needed to transform the Eighth Army into a force capable of fighting a battle it could win.battle of alamein - 1942, world war 1939-1945 - campaigns - north africa

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.580.non-fictionPeter FitzSimons, Australia's most beloved popular historian, focuses on one of the seminal moments in Australian history: the Battle of tobruk in 1941, in which more than 15 000 Australian troops - backed by British artillery - fought in excruciating desert heat through eight long months, against Adolf Hitler's formidable Afrika Korps. During the dark heart of World War II, when Hitler turned his attention to conquering North Africa, a distracted and far-fl ung Allied force could not give its all to the defence of Libya. So the job was left to the roughest, toughest bunch that could be mustered: the Australian Imperial Force. the AIF's defence of the harbour city of tobruk against the Afrika Korps' armoured division is not only the stuff of Australian legend, it is one of the great battles of all time, as against the might of General Rommel and his Panzers, the Australians relied on one factor in particular to give them the necessary strength against the enemy: mateship. Drawing on extensive source material - including diaries and letters, many never published before - this extraordinary book, written in Peter FitzSimons' highly readable style, is the definitive account of this remarkable chapter in Australia's historyworld war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – north africa, siege of tobruk

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.281.non-fictionPeter Brune's account of the Kokoda campaign in 1942world war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – new guinea, kokoda track

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.691.non-fictionIn 1942 and early 1943 Papua New Guinea was 'a bastard of a place' to fight a war. This book gives us the final, all-encompassing story of the five battles that changed Australia forever. The compelling narrative resonates with the voices of both the well-trained AIF volunteer, and the young Militia conscript who triumphed together. The author interviewed hundreds of these soldiers and himself travelled the treacherous terrain and bloody battlegrounds where so many of their mates perished, and reveals the inside story of how Generals MacArthur and Blamey sacrificed many of the senior Australian field commanders as scapegoats to protect their own positions. A Bastard of a Place restores Milne Bay, Gona, Buna and Sanananda to their rightful place beside Kokoda to what they should collectively be for all Australians - sacred ground.world war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – new guinea, world war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – kokoda

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, map, p.404.non-fictionBy March 1942, the Japanese had steamrolled through Malaya, laid siege to Singapore, and bombed Darwin with the same ferocity they had dealt Pearl Harbor. Nothing could stop them. Their next step was inevitable, surely: the invasion and occupation of Australia. Meanwhile, as Australian prime minister John Curtin was battling with Winston Churchill to get troops back from overseas to defend their homeland, he was also positioning to ensure the United States would be there with us to fend off the approaching enemy. And at home, people pitched in as best they could and in any way to frustrate the invader. They all played their part, torn between 'she'll be right' and near panic. On Our Doorstep is the story of how Australia and Australians - the government, the military and the people - prepared to face this calamity, and the events that persuaded them of its probability. In the end, Japan found it had stretched itself beyond the reliability of its supply line, but had it ever intended to invade Australia?world war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – south west pacific, australia - politics and government - 1939-1945

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.304.non-fictionThe fighting on the Kokoda track in WWII is second only to Gallipoli in the Australian national consciousness. In this important book, the author explains what really happened on the Kokoda track in 1942.world war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – kokoda, kokoda track papua new guinea

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.252.non-fictionAgainst the sun is a challenging account of the AIF's 8th division and the campaign against the Japanese in Malaya in 1941 - 1942world war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – malaya, australian army - 8th division

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.193.non-fictionAustralia lost its innocence in 1942. Japan had conquered Asia and the Pacific,and were at our doorstep. Our finest troops were fighting in the Middle East. All that stood between the Japanese onslaught and our homeland was a handful of 18-year-old militia troops who had never fired a shot in angerworld war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – kokoda, kokoda track papua new guinea

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.262.non-fictionThe story of POW's captured at Hong Kong is told for the first time in this book. A gripping tale of courage and enduranceworld war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – hong kong, world war 1939-1945 - prisoners and prisons - japan

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.479.non-fictionKokoda, 1942. In the muddy, treacherous mountains of Papua New Guinea, a small force of young Australian soldiers - some of them still teenagers - are up against highly trained, experienced Japanese troops. Many believed that the all-conquering Imperial Japanese Army was unstoppable. But this is the story of how these brave young Aussies faced up to some of the world's best soldiers on a narrow, precarious jungle track - and defeated them.world war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – kokoda, kokoda track 1942

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.307.non-fictionThe biography of Ralph Honner, soldier and statesmanaustralian army - 39th infantry battalion, world war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – new guinea

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.548.non-fictionPearl Harbour. Kokoda. The fall of Singapore. Curtin's fight with Churchill. The bombing of Darwin. The Battle of Midway. POWs. Kamikaze. Hiroshima. These words alone are enough to convey the terror, courage and drama of the Pacific War, when the balance of power stood on a knife-edge and when the future of Australia herself was on the brink - threatened by Japanese aggression on one hand and British apathy on the other. Until now the history of the Pacific War has largely been written from the American perspective. Now, for the first time, Peter Thompson places Australian voices and action at the heart of a struggle that took an unimaginable number of lives and only ended with the unleashing of the most powerful weapon the world had ever seen. Pearl Harbor; The fall of Singapore; Curtin's fights with Churchill; The bombing of Darwin; POW camps; The battle of Midway; Kokoda; Buna; Kamikaze pilots; Hiroshima. These words alone are enough to convey the terror, courage and drama of the Pacific War, when the balance of power stood on a knife-edge and when the future of Australia was on the brink - threatened by Japanese aggression on the one hand and British deception on the other. After a conflict that took an unimaginable number of lives and ended with the unleashing of the most powerful weapon the world had ever seen, the Allies emerged victorious. Australia, however, was criticised by Churchill and his generals for showing cowardice in the face of the enemy and for not caring about the fate of other nations. The endorsement of these claims by several military historians today shows that the smear has not gone away. Until nowworld war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – pacific, world war 1939 – 1945 – australia

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.109.non-fictionBombing of Darwin - Includes glossary of World War II Australian slangworld war 1939-1945 - australia - northern territory, air raids - darwin

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.375.non-fictionBomber Command's offensive against the cities of Germany was one of the epic campaigns of the Second World War. More than 56,000 British and Commonwealth aircrew and 600,000 Germans died in the course of the RAF's attempt to win the war by bombing. The struggle began in 1939 with a few score primitive Whitleys, Hampdens and Wellingtons, and ended six years later with 1,600 Lancasters, Halifaxes and Mosquitoes razing whole cities in a single night. world war 1939-1945 - aerial operations - britain, royal air orce - bomber command

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.352.non-fictionA complete account of the war in the Mediterranean both above and below the waves until the Italian surrender in September 1943world war 1939 – 1945 –naval operations, world war 1939 – 1945 – campaigns – mediterranean

Index, bibliography, notes, ill, maps, p.376.non-fictionAfter Singapore fell to the Japanese in early 1942, 70000 prisoners, including 15000 Australians, were held as POWs at the notorious Changi prison. To amuse themselves, a group of sportsmen created an Aussie Football League, complete with tribunal, selection panel, umpires and coaches, a final game, and a Brownlow Medal.world war 1939 – 1945 - prisons and prisoners – japanese, changi prison - singapore

Bibliography, Imdex, notes, ill (maps), p.426.This book analyses the question: is America to blame for the cold war?united states - foreign relations, united states - history - cold war

Index, ill (b/w plates), p.342.non-fictionThe story of Douglas Bader's life is the stuff of legend. After losing both his legs in a flying accident he returned to the RAF at the beginning the Second World War to become Britain's most famous airman and hero. In the Battle of Britain he led his squadron of Spitfires to kill after kill, keeping them going with his unstoppable banter. Shot down in occupied France, his German captors had to confiscate his tin legs in order to stop him trying to escape. And Bader faced it all, disability, leadership and capture, with a charm and determination that was to become an inspiration to all around himbader douglas - biography, battle of britain - history